3DO

Here come some absolutely gross assumptions guaranteed to make experts wince. The Mega Drive and SNES are commonly referred to as part of the fourth generation of consoles, but in the UK it was the second generation at best. The eighties were dominated by 8-bit computers, not consoles. It was only really as the eighties ended that Virgin Mastertronic began to have some success selling the SEGA Master System. Around the same time, home grown companies had a go at cracking the console marker. Konix really tried to be a contender with the Multisystem in 1989. Amstrad had a go with the GX4000 console in 1990. But nobody cracked it because consoles didn't break into the wider public consciousness until the period kickstarted by the release of Tetris for the Game Boy, in September 1990, and consolidated by the June 1991 release of Sonic the Hedgehog. That's when the UK market became ripe for plucking.

Future Publishing

Valeside, West Street, Somerton. Somerset TAJ I 7PS

But the biggest news of the moment was that ZZAP! was to be moved from its base in Yeovil to Newsfield's mega-stylish giga-tower block HQ in Ludlow. In the process of moving, a few things were lost such as Gary Penn's Tears For fears tapes, some biros and our erstwhile newshound Ed Banger through an unfortunate accident on the M4. Oh, and Chris Anderson and Bob Wade who decided they prefered Amstrads to Commodores.
(ZZAP!64 Christmas Special 1985 page 96)

Gargoyle Games

74 King Street, Dudley, DY2

TO THE STARS!

Birmingham, generally lagging behind Manchester and Liverpool for games programming is now making a sterling effort to catch up. Brand new company Gargoyle Games, has launched its first game for the 48K Spectrum. It's called Ad Astra (to the stars), and is a 3D shoot em up like you've never seen before. The 3D perspective view is quite astonishing - see the review in this issue. 

First and Last

 

The massive denial of service attack against the Internet Archive has been a bit of a blow. I rely on its collection of computer magazines so I need to find a different approach if I want to keep the two week cycle of updates going. What do I have in terms of other resources? I have a subscription to newspapers.com because I am unable to remember when a free seven day trial is about to come to an end. How can I use that? What if I use it to find the first and last mentions of selected UK home computers. It's a bit high concept but I think I can make it work. So, what computers? Lets pick 10 and write about them in chronological order; The BBC Micro, Enterprise, ZX80, ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, and Amstrad CPC.

Questions in the House

It's there in black and white on page 15 of THE GUARDIAN (29 August 1985). "Questions were asked in Parliament." The questions were about US Gold's game Raid Over Moscow -tag line, "Play it like there's no tomorrow." Except THE GUARDIAN is wrong. The game was controversial in the UK, just ask Monsignor Bruce Kent of CND, but no questions were asked in the UK Parliament. It was in Finland where a communist MP questioned distribution of the game. This was disappointing to learn but I found myself wondering whether any of our MPs did ever talk about games or home computers. There's only one way to find out.

Konix

35 Rassau Industrial Estate, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, NP3

British hardware never had the same international profile as British software. The Enterprise had a degree of success in Hungary. The Dragon likewise in Spain. Acorn, Sinclair, and Amstrad all had a greater impact but you'd be hard pushed to describe any of them as globally famous. The Sinclair Spectrum sold five million units in total, a figure dwarfed by the 17 million Commodore 64s sold around the world. Then in 1989, one company came up with a device that could change everything. A console that could take on the world. 

Newsfield Ltd

1/2 King Street, Ludlow, Shropshire

So we're doing magazines now are we? Well yes, obviously. The tagline of this blog is "seeking out Britain's pioneering software houses," but I've covered Argus Specialist Press and assorted computer manufacturers under the fig leaf justification that those companies did occasionally chuck out a few games. I could have done the same for Newsfield because they spun off a software house called Thalamus but it seems unnecessary. Newsfield were an essential part of the UK software scene in their own right, as were other publishers like Future (AMSTRAD ACTION) or Sportscene/Dennis (YOUR SINCLAIR and YOUR 64), or hardware companies like Romantic Robot (the various Multiface machines) and joystick kings Konix. A whole support industry grew up around software companies like the ecology of a coral reef and to not talk about it is to not tell the whole story.

Sir Clive Sinclair's Quantum Leap

This week I have mostly decided to be obsessed with the TV advert for the Sinclair QL and I'm going to look at it in an excruciating level of detail. Off the top of my head I'm not really sure what the point of this article will be. It might be helpful to go through the advert looking for any clues as the where it was filmed or I might point at stuff and try and show how clever I think I am. Who knows. Here we go. Theorising that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Sir Clive Sinclair stepped into 

Sinclair Research

25 Willis Road Cambridge, CB1

"No dessert until you've eaten your greens." Well this post is my dessert. I wanted this blog to be more than Sinclair focused nostalgia (although that's my origin story) so I made sure to eat my greens first with articles about Amstrad and Enterprise plus, still on the to-do list, Commodore, Acorn, and Jupiter Cantab (no, really). Even better, I can use the cover of another of my favourite games Stop the Express. Which, to continue the dessert-based metaphor, is the equivalent of smothering a big scoop of chocolate ice cream in jam, evaporated milk, jelly, spangles, etc, and then be told to stop running round shrieking or I won't be allowed to watch Blake's 7.

Enterprise / Entersoft

31-37 Hoxton Street, London, N1 

Once upon a time there was a company called Samurai Computers Ltd. Unfortunately for boring business reasons it had to change its name to Elan. This name also didn't stick and the company briefly toyed with the name Flan but everybody laughed. So the company changed its name again, to Enterprise. And then it finally released the computer it had been developing for nearly three years.

Legend

1 Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4

Legend's first game Valhalla was steeped in Norse mythology. Players were sent on a quest around Asgard searching for six mythical objects (Ofnir, Drapnir, Skornir, Skalir, Felstrong, and Grimnir) and encountering gods and heroes. Of course, given the way the company fell, the legend they should have been paying attention to was Icarus.

Amstrad / Amsoft

Brentwood House, 169 King's Road, Brentwood, CM14

Brentwood not Brentford. Brentwood not Brentford. Brentwood. Brentwood. I've got a blind spot on the location of the Amstrad HQ which must be a result of reading too many Robert Rankin books.  I'd normally weed out mistakes before publishing but in this case I'm going to allow rogue Brentfords* to remain; to see how many there are. Let's call it a science experiment. Amstrad moved to Brentwood in 1984, 16 years after the company was founded and the same year the CPC 464 was launched.